Retirees Grappling with Post-FI Life

“What are you planning on doing with the proceeds? Stocks and bonds? Also my long term plan is to own 15+ units and pay them off before retirement. I'm curious if you thought about that”

“Just pay the tax and move on. Can't get emotionally tied to the "gross" check from settlement... to help witj that, I calculate the tax, and immediately send in as a quarterly. Helps lessen the sting...”

“no, 5.5m liquid at 32, spending 240k net. Then add healthcare (ACA) for 33 years. It gets more expensive as you get older. I think your burn rate is way too high.”

“I suppose I would do what I did, in fact, do. Quit my job, rent out my house, move abroad to an exotic country and spend my time writing, researching, taking classes and doing occasional real estate projects. Our next big plan? Trying to convince wife to buy a residential barge and move to Belgium. She speaks French but I'm interested in the Flemish speaking part of the country. I did take some Dutch lessons but last time we were in Bruges, the locals were like "uhhh..... no. That's”

“Take 6-12 months off and re-evaluate after. I called mine “mini-retirement”. Using retirement money now instead of at 60+. There’s a couple books out there on how to prepare for a sabbatical. Best thing I ever did.”

“I have never ever regretted selling. But I've also never sold at a loss. It's a business. If my spreadsheet shows that selling is absolutely more profitable than holding, I sell.”

“I am in a similar situation, similar NW and investable, but older. Wife is younger and will continue to work. Financially you should be OK. But, are you willing to be a good husband? Looking after kids (guessing they are small), cooking, cleaning dishes after dinner, drop offs, pickups, etc. Many men are not good at that. Since you have already been RIFed, you should take a 3-6 month sabbatical and see how it goes. Do the things I mentioned in the last line and see if you like it. I will guess t”

“You should head on over to r/fire where you will find more people who have actually already retired early”

“Based on your additional info you have lots of options: for starters, being burned out is a state of mind, not a physical reality. Bar a toxic workplace, work on your attitude towards life and your mental health; think about work less and enjoy life more. you can switch to a less paying/less stressful job, while leaving your current savings growing on auto pilot. That is, if you are in the stock market with a good shot at real growth. you could grind it out for the $3mil, which could solidify an”

“Ah, that is where we disagree! I agree they aren’t investments in the financial sense. But if the purpose of building wealth is to create a life you value, then spending some of it on experiences has produced a return for us that can’t be measured in dollars.”

My guess is he’d get zero pension, ever, if he doesn’t continue until 55.

“Dang maybe I should rethink - 41 IC L5 - 9.5m usd nw 8.6 liquid - working full time , 1 kid on the way. Partner earning 50k usd annually”

“It's still guaranteed. It's just going to reduce in amount of benefits. It's probably gonna be around until at least 2100 in some form or another. Funds are just not going to be positive cash flow. It'll takes a long while to completely deplete it and there is a relatively easy way to postpone this even further by removing the FICA cap on the most wealthy people.”

“At 65 you'd have that difference. When your kids would be grown for most people. If you died in your 30s with 2 kids they wouldn't have nearly the same as SS with what you would have saved. Also SS pays out for spouses so they're accounting for 50% of your benefit going to a spouse too. Hell, multiple spouses as long as it was at least a 10 year marriage.”

“Social Security is guaranteed. Supposed to be guaranteed. Yet according to my statement they're expecting by the time I retire they'll only be able to pay 80% of promised benefits. (Unless Congress takes aggressive action, like say removing the FICA cap on Social Security so every dollar earned is taxed - but I'm not going to hang my hopes on Congress Doing Its Fucking Job... ) Guarantee isn't worth much when the agency is straight-up admitting it can't meet the commitment...”

No?

“So double down on your losses by missing the big up swings with a lump sum and then also selling when the market is down? Thats not a strategy any financial advisor is going to recommend, but to each their own. If you know you have a habit of selling when the market is down, that's something for therapy to help work out as an anxiety issue. It's just costing you money to do that. I've said elsewhere but this is personal finance. The data shows lump sum and let it ride is the most con”

“And for a FATfire six figures of dividends is still a negligible annual tax in a post retirement period relative to quality of life. A FAT wouldn’t uproot their life to save $40k in taxes.”

“He's saying the NPV of your pension is like $2.5m. You're at like $7.3m which is still high r/GregFire”

“Totally agree - Some people just have a big pie in the sky number. Also OP already said at 10m, compounding is already doing most of the work and his 250k salary more than covers expenses so he’s at 2.5% withdrawal rate so unless he’s yolo’ing Lambos or something then he’s probably fine at 10m and just trust the math. At”

“Ben Felix put out a video a few days ago where he actually goes a little against the grain and says while you're young you should prioritize experiences over squeezing every last dollar out of your budget to maximize compounding. He says you're better off maximizing investing once you're in your prime income earning years later in life. I'm definitely guilty of over-saving, and am wondering if anyone else made the decision to cut back on the saving and live a little while you&#39”

“how can I know what to ask if I'm new to everything? I don't know what to ask.”

“1) get a very high paying six figure job and live below your means and invest in index funds. Probably not enough. 2) some combination of inheritance, hitting it big with RSU's at a company, starting your own company and hitting it big, or being extremely lucky like investing in the next bitcoin or Nvidia early on and growing your investment hundreds of times.”

“I’m amazed at how many people come to an early retirement sub, make a long post about numbers where they have way more money than they need and then conclude “but I could never retire, I need the intellectual stimulation / purpose / etc” Like yeah, all of us here just turned our brains off the day we retired. There’s clearly nothing to do, and esp nothing challenging or fulfilling, other than sit in an office in exchange for a paycheck that is not material to your liquid Nw.”

“Our members have asked for a high level of moderation. Personal attacks, name calling, and undue profanity are all considered inappropriate for this sub.”

“I was planning to work u til 65 but my company is diving into shitsville fast so I’m retiring next year at 56. having a brokerage account really helps in terms of managing MAGI to stay under the ACA subsidy cliff. definitely get your 4%, max your Roth IRAs (both of you), then leftover money go into a brokeage account. All this is assuming you have 6-12 month emergency fund in safe places like money market.”

“Not in my current state I know I couldn't handle it. I've been full time wfh for the last 8+ years. Its also basically been semi-retirement that entire time. I've basically sat on my rear, ate badly, didn't excercise, and lived like a hermit most of the time. I did maybe on avg an hr of actual work a week, a few emails, cases, and calls and that was about it. Mostly because I was an expert in my field with so much knowledge and experience I could diagnose and answer critical issu”

“The way I read it, once you are earning more in interest than your expected annual spending, that's when you take your foot off the gas.”

“Anytime. Enjoy the year off, you earned it — the next chapter's honestly the best problem you'll ever get to work on.”

“At 7.5M with a working spouse covering expenses, you're basically playing with house money if you do go back - the real question is whether you'd actually *enjoy* it or if you're just bored three weeks in. If it's the latter, lean into building something on your own terms instead of grinding someone else's spreadsheet again.”

“For sure. Its about sacrifices you want to make. My wifes family loves camping and I absolutely hate it lol. Its more work than a vacation. But many love it. I love cruises, and many hate them.”

“Here is my profile. I’d like to know whether I am on track to achieve fatFIRE by age 57, supporting annual spending of 240k per year (post tax): 1) 53yo M in MCOL area with wife and two kids (one starting college this year and another in 2 years) 2) 6.7 million in retirement savings (45/35/20 in brokerage/401k/Roth). Roughly 70% invested in stocks. 3) I have saved separately for kids college in 529. 4) if I stay on with my employer, expect to receive another 3-3.5 million (pre tax) in lump sum p”

“I think you're asking the wrong question. The question isn't "Can I retire?" It's "What would another VP role actually buy me?" Financially, another five years probably moves you from "very safe" to "extremely safe." But those five years also have an opportunity cost: time with your kids while they're young, flexibility, lower stress, and the chance to build something you actually own. Once you already have enough, the trade-off stops being”

“Take some time (6 months?) as a trial run, can just call it a sabbatical and no one will care. See how you feel about having more time for family, or if you start running through ideas of things to build in your head. Friends who rushed back to find a job had mild regrets- just nice to get mini breaks like these.”

“Well to be fair, she's making "only" 200k so it's not like she's covering the entire burn. And looks to me like most of assets were probably from the OP's comp. IMO it's not really about the amount you contribute, it's about the effort. If OP and his wife both worked full time and now he's gonna retire and hang out while she continues to work full time, she's gonna be resentful because they went from equal to unequal effort. Yes, he made more, but a fami”

thanks for explaining

“Yeah absolutely. Hence “most” would. That means “a lot”. Maybe your reading comprehension ain’t to hot.”

“How are you so confident that the portfolio will grow - at all? Maybe it drops. I’d sure want a larger cushion.”

“My wife an I retired at 40 at a similar number about 8 years ago, so I understand the second guessing. Before we pulled the trigger we did all the same math, fireCalc etc. What worked best for us to convince ourselves it was ok was talking to a fiduciary financial advisor. They double checked the modeling, did thier own, and wrote up scenarios that we had in fact missed, but penciled out fine. Your major new expenses will be health care and insurance. Your risks are market risks based on your cu”

“The main thing is to have a reason to retire/have something to retire to. For me it was time with my kids, time for family (parents are in their 70s) and time for my health (I wasn't exercising, not eating healthy, etc) - and I also had a big list of passion projects & passion business ideas. If I were you and had something to retire to, I'd definitely do it ASAP. On the other hand, if you don't have something to retire to yet, then keep going but spend some time thinking about i”

“Worked, didn’t come into it. Being frugal for 20 years, good real estate decisions and investing and saving half of our gross income for 10 years. All that got probably 1/2 of it. The other half was my partner got equity that was able to transact from their previous company.”

“As to whether you should or not, from a money point of view of course you should not which you obviously know. If you enjoy the work just find a way to do substantially less of it but keep it part of your life. I love my job and will begin coasting at the start of 2027 with about half the year off every year. Will be full FIRE within 5 and then will just continue incrementally downscaling as desired until I downscale to 0.”

“Sound genuinely stressful position, and the constant second-guessing is your brain correctly flagging that the stakes are high. Set your rules before you spend, not while you're watching numbers move, decide in advance what ROAS or CPA kills a campaign, and write it down somewhere you'll actually look at, so the decision isn't made in the moment when you're anxious. The advice on tranching is a good one too. Loneliness makes this super hard. Defo find one or two other founders yo”

“Same boat here. I equate spending more than I need as 'waste'. Somehow it's been hardwired in me that doing things myself and experiencing inconvenience or discomfort keeps me grounded. It gives me a strange satisfaction in fact.”

“This has been one of the biggest struggles and challenges for me. All the hard work, and all the saving and all the investing now I’m struggling to enjoy it. When you figure out the answer, please let me know.”

“As others have said, but the add, I also see spending as part of my ethical obligation as a good citizen, especially supporting small businesses. Like the other day I couldn't decide what to eat, so I got 3 plates and ate basically nothing. When you have money, it's important to find ways to spend it so you are not just another rich dude with buckets of cash on your death bed. Another tip is remembering that anything under $500 is irrelevant - effectively free. Maybe your number is $199,”

“2x of your projected spend as the 3% withdrawal rate” - So… 1.5%?

“Hey, I still save the ketchup packs and have a drawer full of them. Old habits are hard to shake off.”

“Obligatory 'not fatFire' but the scale of the problem is the same. I kept working after I hit minFI because I wanted to make sure I could afford a life where me and a partner would never have to really worry about money. In exchange for 'feathering the nest' I told myself I would increase my spending in line with what I could draw at a 3% SWR. In the real world, while I could , by the plan, spend much more than I do now, I still find splurging on myself to be deeply uncomfortable”

Ai slop

“Practice makes it perfect. Just keep on spending. Your brain will definitely reset to the new norm.”

“The saver instinct doesn't shut off just because we hit a certain number. This habit actually built the number, so it's the same muscle you'd need to consciously override. What helped me wasn't struggling to change the saver mindset but taking out the decision out of my hands. For example, I'll keep a fixed annual "fun money" amount that's always in pre-approved status. I will spend on exactly this category, no re-justifying each time. This removes the recurring”

“It does fade, what helps is not looking at the numbers every day. know what you can spend without worry, that was the goal right?”

“Nope, not at all. We let our spending grow as our wealth grew, and have no problem managing to spend $50-$60k a month, but have been doing it for more than a decade. I dont know how long you have been thinking about the FIRE math, but for us it was three decades, so are very comfortable with it.”

“I'm not there yet but I'm in a financial situation where when I can start pulling from 401Ks I will have such a significant increase in income that I won't know how to spend it. I don't have any advice other than congratulations!”

“When I had kids. Then my efforts turned to making the most amount of money possible, to making enough money to FIRE. The first year I hit my numbers, I gave it one more year to make sure the numbers would stick, then I REed.”

“There’s nothing ironic about being less concerned with spending after your net worth increased 5x”

“Genuinely so baffled how there are posts like this that say $11m net worth but holding off retirement due to college. If that's the only reason that is absolutely crazy. As for worrying about not finding interesting things to do outside of work, that is something you have to work on especially if you've been killing long hours.”

“And what about when the market doesn't recover within your 5-year ladder window (which will almost certainly occur within your remaining expected lifetime)? You then will have to start cannibalizing equities, but you didn't get the proper diversified return in the up years because of your overweight on cash/bonds. This feels like retirement martingaling.”